Some Information to Consider

Bay area superscribe J.D. Lasica has been covering new media since almost before there was anything to cover. He wrote a monthly column on the subject in the American Journalism Review beginning in the mid-'90s. Now, his brilliant Newmediamusings is full of stuff you should know (his other blog isn't bad either). Including this recent squib on some great free tools:

"Free conference calling. For the past year I've been using freeconferencecall.com to make conference calls with business associates and friends. A lot of people still don't know about it. No gimmicks — it really is free. A number of competitors offer a similar service, which they can afford to do because VoIP is so damn cheap.
Free directory assistance. Just came across this: Phone companies charge you $1.40 or more for a simple 411 information call, even if you don't get the number you're seeking. There's a free alternative: Simply dial 1-800-FREE-411 or 1 800-373-3411 for both local and national directory service. Try it out. Again, no gimmicks. "

English as a Second Language. From the excellent Cyberjournalist.net, comes word that English is not the dominant language in the blog world. And if you guessed Chinese, you're also wrong (it's #3 on the list). Actually, it's Japanese, according to Technorati's David Sifry.

From ITWorld.com: Ten Reasons Why 2006 Will be a Tipping Point for New Media.

Fellow bloggers, hear this: “Search engines love blogs. Right out of the gate your blog has an advantage in the search engines over traditional websites. But don't rest on your laurels; you must fine-tune your blog.” But how, you ask? This article in Marketingprofs.com provides some good tips.

The things you can learn when you read. I consider myself something of an amateur historian and a reasonably well-informed baseball fan. Despite that combination, I never knew that the great flu pandemic of the early 1900's had a lasting effect on Major League Baseball until I came across this piece in the Boston Globe. It notes that the public health concerns of that era led to the banning of the spitball and the custom of regularly rotating new balls into the game. It gets my nod for the most interesting bit of new information I've yet come across this week. How about you? What have you learned from reading or conversation that surprised or delighted you? Breakfast for two (that's me and you) goes to the best anecdote anyone leaves in the comment section. If you're not in my region, or anywhere I'm likely to travel to soon, we'll just have to come up with Plan B.